goodbye to an era

I have made it no secret that we are done having children (much to my parents dismay). And although I am mostly happy about this there are times when saying goodbye to the baby days are hard. I will miss feeling a little person twirl around inside me. I will miss having the general public be much nicer to me when I am noticeably pregnant -pregnant women can get away with anything (and should in my opinion). I will miss the older generation giving me all sorts of unsolicited advice on everything from birthing to gender-guessing to raising children; I always loved it because it would end in a congratulations. Mothers don't get that kind of patience from older people; instead we just get dirty looks to remind us we are failing at keeping our brood in check while out and about! I will miss having a brand new little person to hold and love and look at. They are so sweet when they are new and I really started to love it by my third (sorry Lily and Adam...it was more of a burden than a pleasure to get up with you in the night. What can I say; age and experience brought new perspective). I will miss the increase of love in our home that a new baby brings - it just seems Utopian for a while and I love it. There are also LOTS and LOTS of things I won't miss...mostly the post-baby weight that also hasn't wanted to come off after the last two (also a product of age, I think). Plus as they get big the house just seems to get noisier; I don't think I take much more noise! So all in all, we are done, and although I have mixed feelings about it, I am mostly at peace with it.

A couple weeks ago we bought a bunk bed for the boys room. And of course Davie saw it and just kind of knew it was for him. He is so smart! So we decided to move him down and so far it has gone pretty well. Now that I had an empty room I decided it would be nice to have a place for people to sleep in privacy when they come to visit: enter the guest room. As I am was moving everything out though I felt a little sad; like I was saying goodbye to some old and dear friends. I know it is silly, it is just stuff, but it is stuff that has been ever so present in my life now for eight years. It is full of memories. Happy memories. So here is my little tribute to the past eight years and happiness I have felt with each new "baby" moment...

Here is my little helper sporting his cool shades! Is there anything more refreshing than a newly emptied closet! I think not! It got filled quickly...which is alright because it is still clean and organized and now the stuff that left those previous places are also clean and organized. It is so nice!

My old red crib. I LOVE THIS CRIB!!!! So much so that I am keeping it for when I have grandbabies! I figure no one is going to want an old, metal, red crib that has gone though nine children (we inherited it from a neighbor who had five children...I had Lily like two weeks later). I took it all apart and it will go up in attic and in like 16 or 17 years when Lily has a baby I will get it out again.
When we moved to Seattle Lily was just six weeks old. Oh she was sooooo cute! We didn't have a lot of money, but I wanted something to hang in her room. So we went to Ikea (that was when Ikea was still cheap...I think there stuff is sort of over-priced and poor quality now) and I found these three little pictures. I love them and I have decided to maybe hang them in the toy room; I just can't bear to part with them. Aren't I pathetic!
The shelf stayed, but the darling vinyl lettering that says "David" had to come down. It killed me to take it off...I loved the way it looked. Plus a couple of the things on the shelf came down like my old sock bunny that a neighbor made for me when I was born! The picture of Davie stayed - cute little fat thing!
This is our $5 changing table. It was ugly, but I made it somewhat cute with all the baskets. Again, when we moved up north we were poor and I found this at a garage sale. She was asking $10 and I had was $5, so she agreed and I was thrilled. It has been a great little piece of furniture. It is now in closet holing a bunch of craft items.
Goodbye baby years...Hello school years (let's hope there isn't too much drama)!